


Above The Clouds

by Experimental



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, Alternate Universe - Medieval, Alternate Universe - Utopia, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Fairy Tale Style, Lovers to Friends, Multi, Protective Siblings, Technology Indistinguishable From Magic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-19
Updated: 2018-03-19
Packaged: 2019-04-04 10:40:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,433
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14018490
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Experimental/pseuds/Experimental
Summary: Michele and Sara are children of nobility, whose future their lord father will decide upon their twenty-second birthday. One will inherit his lands, the other will be married off to forge an alliance—but Michele is doing his best to make the latter impossible for both of them.One day a stranger arrives in a gleaming ship, claiming to be from a country in the sky.





	Above The Clouds

Once upon a time there lived a lord and his two children.

The son, who was called Michele, grew up as brave and righteous and bullheaded as the archangel he was named for; and his sister Sara, who was not an hour younger, was as wild as she was wise, like the raven as dark as her hair.

Both were known throughout the land for their rare beauty and skill in the courtly and martial arts. Whatever discipline one sought to learn, the other was compelled to excel in equally, so that for a time, when they were in their armor, before they began to blossom into a young man and young woman, it was nigh impossible to tell them apart. Their people called them the twin lions, for the bronze statues that had stood guard over their family's castle for centuries, and told tales of what great things they would do.

But the lord knew that one day he would have to make a decision. On the day his children turned twenty-two—for that was an auspicious number in his country and doubly lucky for twins—he would have to choose one child to inherit his lands and duties, while the other would be given to the son or daughter of one of his neighbors in holy union, in order to strengthen political ties.

So it was that when Michele and Sara turned sixteen, lords and ladies throughout the kingdom began to journey to the castle, so that they might look upon the twin lions and try to win their favor. And favor they did win—with Sara. Where Michele was cold and dismissive to even the most agreeable of supplicants, Sara got on easily with lords and ladies alike.

But all were ultimately chased away by Michele, who swore that no-one existed that was worthy of his sister's hand. To prove this was so, he devised a series of increasingly ponderous tests for each of her suitors, and if they could not pass, they must leave the lordship in peace. The final test was to defeat Michele in single combat. Many tried, but none was able to pass it.

Three years went by in this fashion, and the lord began to despair that he would ever find a suitable match for either of his children.

Then one day a young stranger arrived in a gleaming ship the likes of which no-one had ever seen before. He wore ill-fitting clothes of some lightweight shimmering material, and spoke in an unknown accent. But he came with a sizable entourage, so the lord received him with much ceremony, as he thought this stranger must be the prince or even the young king of some kingdom far away beyond the horizon.

The young man shook his head when the lord said this, however, and said that his country had no king. It was a republic, ruled by common people, duly elected. “But where is your country?” asked the lord. “Up there,” said the young man, pointing to the sky, as if such things were perfectly commonplace.

“You mean Heaven?” said Michele. But his sister, who was wiser in such matters, laughed.

The young man laughed too. “I assure you we are not angels, if that is what you are suggesting,” he said. “We are human beings, same as you. Our country just happens to exist in the sky.”

The young stranger, who was called Emil, explained that word of the twin lions' talents and beauty had reached his city above the clouds, and that he had been sent to see if it was true and whether an alliance could be forged between their two countries.

As the days went by, the lord became more and more intrigued by Emil's tales of his homeland, and Sara became more and more intrigued by Emil. So the lord began to plan how he might make Emil a part of his family, and he announced seven consecutive nights of feasting and dancing.

But Michele saw how his sister stared after the young stranger and feared that this time he would surely lose her. Only now it would not be to some other lordship in the kingdom, where he might yet visit her, but to some even more distant land he could barely imagine. If Sara returned home with Emil as his wife, Michele might never see her again.

So he devised a test he was sure the stranger would never be able to pass. “If you would sit at our table at tonight's feast,” Michele told him, “make the sun to shine at night.” Surely this was an impossible thing, and Emil would be forced to admit defeat, and Sara would give her attention to none but Michele this night.

But Emil shrugged and said, “If you wish it,” and retrieved a small box from his ship. When he opened the box, a great black sail unfurled from within it, and it shone like gold where it was touched by sunlight. Emil let it sit in the sun's rays all day, and when night fell, the feast was lit not by candles but by little glass baubles that shone with the brightness of the sun, and all the guests proclaimed that neither the castle nor the food, nor the young lord and lady, had ever looked so beautiful. And that night at the feast, Emil sat at the lord's table, and enjoyed Sara's complete attention.

The next night, Michele said to Emil, “If you would sit beside my sister at tonight's feast, produce for us a poem testifying in written words to her beauty, without ever touching ink to paper.” Emil merely said, “If you wish it,” and retrieved another small box from his ship. At the feast that night, he stood before the guests with his empty hands clasped tightly behind his back, and he composed a poem on Sara's dark beauty. As he spoke, the words appeared upon one side of the box as if by magic, and when he was done, he took the seat beside Sara.

Michele was livid, and so he devised an even more impossible task for the next night. “If you would dance with my sister at tonight's feast,” he told Emil, “play her a song to dance to using no instruments, players, nor singers.” Surely this could not be done, so Michele grinned in his triumph and waited for Emil to admit defeat. But Emil only smiled and said, “If you wish it,” and retrieved from his ship yet another small box, smaller even than the first two. When it came time for the dancing to begin, he set the box on the dais where players would have assembled with their instruments, and pressed a button. The most entrancing music came out and filled the room, music that could only have been made by people who lived in the sky, and that night Emil danced with Sara until neither could dance any more.

For the fourth night, Michele devised an even more impossible task for Emil. “My sister has a great fondness for snow,” he said, “so if you would make her happy, you will make it to snow in the middle of summer.” Now _this,_ surely, could not be done. But Emil smiled and said, “That is easily done, my lord,” and went to retrieve another box from his ship. That night he and Sara danced amid falling snowflakes in the warm summer night, and Michele fumed and drank cup after cup of wine until he quite forgot his manners.

“If you would court my sister,” he said to Emil before everyone at the festivities, “you must defeat me in single combat, tomorrow night before the feast.” Sara, who had seen many suitors of whom she had been quite fond slink away with their tails between their legs after Michele's duels, was furious and told Michele he had no right to decide whom she could or could not court. Emil did not seem the dueling type, and Michele half expected him to disappear without a word in the middle of the night, as many of his predecessors had chosen to do, so he gave Emil until the morning to decide whether to accept his challenge.

In the morning Emil sought Michele out personally to say, “I feel no ill will toward you, nor do I know what I have done to earn your displeasure. I have done everything you've asked of me without complaint. But if it is truly your wish that I fight you tonight, then I will fight you.” Though it seemed to pain him so just to say that much that Michele expected the fight to be a short one.

It was indeed short. Only Michele had not bothered to consider for even a moment that he might be the one to yield and admit defeat. Emil surprised him with his speed and strength and cunning, as well as his kindness and grace in accepting Michele's surrender, and this time Michele could not even claim that Emil had been simply relying on the magic of his mysterious boxes to lead him to victory.

That night as Emil and Sara danced together, and Michele watched their happy faces twirl by him, he knew he had to raise the stakes, or he was sure to lose Sara forever to this visitor from far away. So on the sixth day he cornered Emil and told him, “My sister is a noble lady, and as such she deserves to be surrounded by things befitting her noble stature. But you have said you are just a commoner. If you would prove that you are fit to stand beside my Sara, you will turn this lead washer into a ring of gold.” And Michele thought, Now at last I have him. The wisest men in the kingdom had tried to turn lead into gold for centuries, but none had ever come close.

Emil took the lead washer and furrowed his brow, and he did not look very confident at all. But he said, “If that is what you wish,” and went to his ship to retrieve a box that was larger than the first four combined. He placed the washer inside the box, closed the lid, and pressed a series of buttons. The box began to hum, and for a while it appeared as though nothing much was happening. But when Emil opened the box and retrieved the lead washer, it appeared to have been changed into a ring of gold.

This was just too much for Michele to believe. He ordered the wisest men in the castle to assay the ring's authenticity, and the box thoroughly examined for tricks; but the wise men assured him the ring was indeed purest gold, and that no trap doors or secret compartments or other trickery could be found within the box. Still Michele insisted that what Emil had done was simply not possible. Emil had said he was no angel, but he certainly possessed the Devil's magic. “It is no magic, I assure you,” Emil told him. “Where I come from, we call this technology, and it is really quite commonplace.”

Now the lord heard that the visitor had succeeded in changing lead into gold, and as he was an ambitious man, he saw this as a chance to make himself extravagantly wealthy, if not wealthier than even the king. He ordered Emil arrested and his ship impounded, until such time as Emil agreed to surrender the secret of this transformative magic to the lord.

Sara was horrified for her new friend and blamed Michele, and even Michele had never intended for such trouble to befall their guest. The twins pleaded with their father to release Emil, but the lord wanted Emil's secret for himself and would not listen. So the twins pleaded with Emil to surrender his technology, but Emil shook his head. “The energy required makes changing lead into gold dreadfully inefficient,” he tried to explain, but Michele and Sara did not understand what he meant. “It would make your father wealthier by far if he were to have his wise men copy my scientists' other technologies, and then sell them to his neighbors.” But the lord was greedy for the sheen of gold and still he would not listen. He made it known that if Emil did not agree to his terms by tomorrow's feast, he would have the visitor tried for conspiracy against the realm.

That night, however, the lord was awoken from his sleep by terrible pains. They plagued him throughout the night till the break of day, and only grew worse as the sun moved across the sky. Wise men were called in from all corners of the country to treat what ailed him, but nothing they did had any effect. Prayer was mandated throughout the country as it was believed the lord would soon die. But when the twins told Emil of their father's malady, he seemed relieved. He explained that it sounded as though the lord was plagued by little germs that were too small to see, and that he had medicine for just such things in a cold box aboard his ship. Emil told the twins where to find the medicine they needed and how to administer it to their father, and assured them he would be well. In the unlikely event he was wrong, he said, he would gladly accept whatever punishment Michele and Sara deemed just.

The twins followed Emil's instructions and gave their father the medicine straight away. True to Emil's word, when daylight next broke, the lord was feeling much improved. And when he was certain he would live, he felt remorse for what he had done to Emil and released him from his prison.

“I cannot give you the secret of changing lead into gold,” Emil told him, as he knew the lord still lusted after this power, “but let me share with your wise men the other technologies of my country, so that they may duplicate them and make you the envy of your neighbors. In return, I ask that when I leave here to return to my own people, one of your children accompany me to live with me there as an ambassador of your country for as long as they may wish. And I ask that I be allowed to announce my choice before you announce your heir.”

The lord agreed to this proposal, even though it was not all he had wanted, out of gratitude to Emil for saving his life. In his heart he prepared to say farewell to his daughter, as he did not think Sara had much interest in statecraft but she seemed to have much interest in Emil.

Three years passed while the scientists from the sky shared their knowledge with the lord's wise men, and during those three years Emil spent almost every day with the twin lions, joining in their adventures and aiding in their duties. In his own country, Emil explained, there was nothing that technology could not provide and so people wanted for nothing; but though the people above the clouds were happy, they lacked the passion born of struggle and want that gave life its meaning. That was why Emil had left, to see other modes of living, and in doing so find his own meaning, and follow his passions. He learned the customs of the twins' country, the importance they placed on honor and family, and on obligation and mercy, which informed each decision in the realm. He even grew out his beard in the traditional fashion. Emil became very fond of the young lord and lady, and they of him.

But as her twenty-second birthday approached, Sara began to have doubts about her future.

“Can your technology grow flowers in the desert?” she asked Emil one day. “Of course,” he answered; and a few weeks later, he showed her a field of the sweetest blooms that were fed and watered by tubes, and never touched the harsh desert sand.

“Can it make the ewe to lamb without ever seeing a ram?” Sara asked, and Emil said, “Of course,” and took three ewes onto his ship. A few months later, they each gave birth to twin lambs, without ever so much as looking at a ram.

“Can it make a dead heart to beat?” Sara asked, thinking surely this thing was impossible, as only God could resurrect the dead on His judgment day. But Emil said, “That is easiest of all,” and he pressed a few buttons on one of his boxes and after a few minutes withdrew from it a heart-shaped object. It was made of some pale gray material that was tough but pliant at the same time, and it beat just like a real heart. It had never been flesh, so in a way, Emil said, it could be said to be dead, “but it pumps so like the real-live thing, no-one who had one inside him or her would ever know the difference.”

At last, Sara could stand it no more and had to ask him, “Can you make me desire what I do not desire?” And this time Emil understood what she had meant all along, and he shook his head sadly. “No, my lady. That is something even my technology cannot do.” And he wondered, when the twins' twenty-second birthday arrived, how he should choose.

It was around this time that Michele and Sara got into a terrible row, and Michele stormed off to Emil and said in his anger, “Can your technology make me forget I even have a sister?” “Surely,” Emil said, “ _that_ is impossible,” because he knew that Sara was as dear to Michele as life itself, and once he had calmed down, Michele had to concede.

“Well, then,” he said instead, “can it allow me to jump off a mountaintop and float safely to earth like a feather on the breeze?” because Michele was still angry and he wanted to do something reckless, but not so reckless that he wanted to die. That, Emil said, it could do, and he produced two harnesses attached to a light type of sailcloth, which billowed out above them when Michele and Emil jumped into the blue, and let them float gently down to the earth like feathers on a breeze.

Michele could think of nothing else throughout the night and all the next day but the fun they had had together drifting through the sky. So he devised a request he thought would be even harder for Emil to fulfill: “Can your technology allow me to swim through the sea like a fish that never needs come up for air?” “That it can do,” Emil said without missing a beat, and he produced two more harnesses, this time with bladders on the back filled with air and tubes for breathing, and that day Michele and Emil swam through the sea like fish that only came up to the air when they had seen their fill.

That night Michele's dreams were filled with colorful fishes that flew like birds through a coral jungle. He wanted desperately to spend more days like that with Emil, as Emil was the first person toward whom Michele could truly say he felt the fondness of friendship. But he did not want Emil to think that he impressed too easily, so he devised an even more impossible request. “Now I wish to dance on the surface of the water,” Michele said to Emil, “but surely that is one thing even your technology cannot let me do.” But Emil grinned and said “Oh, it can do that, too,” and the next morning Michele awoke to see the surface of the pond below his window had been transformed into a flat sheet of ice, even though it was the middle of summer. Emil produced two pairs of blades that they strapped to their feet, which he called skates, and he taught Michele how to dance on the surface of the water.

And as they danced, and raced, and flew across the ice as though they had wings on their feet instead of steel, Michele realized that Emil had done what even he had said was impossible, not just once but thrice already: He had made Michele forget, if only for a little while, that he even had a twin sister.

When he realized this, Michele was distraught. His twenty-second birthday was fast approaching, and whatever his father and Emil chose, he and Sara would be separated for the first time in their lives, possibly forever. He knew Emil would chose Sara to go home with him. It was clear to anyone who saw them together how much they treasured each other's company. Just the thought that Michele would soon be losing his sister and the young man who had become his truest friend in one fell swoop sent him into a fit of anguish. He treated his servants unkindly and was short and moody with everyone, when he even allowed himself to be seen, and lived in dread of that approaching day.

What Michele failed to notice was that Sara felt much the same way.

So, at the feast of their own twenty-second birthday, both Michele and Sara were sullen. Yet they appeared resplendent as ever in their matching lion-crested raiments. Their peers journeyed from their respective lands to lavish the twins with gifts and wish them well. All of the countryside turned out to see which of his children their lord would pick to succeed him.

But before he could, Emil stepped forward, wearing once again the strange, ill-fitting clothes of his homeland, and reminded the lord of his promise. “You said that in return for saving your life, I might choose which of your children I wish to come and live with me in my country above the clouds. That is, of course, if my choice is agreeable to them.”

The lord waved his assent. But he added that if Emil's choice contradicted his own, by right of title the lord's decision would be law.

Emil produced the golden ring that had once been a lead washer, and seeing it Michele turned his head in disgust. He could not bear to watch Emil place that ring on Sara's finger and whisk her up in his arms and twirl her around in front of a cheering crowd, and then fly her away to his city above the clouds where Michele would never see her again.

But then Emil said his name, and Michele looked back just in time to catch the ring which had been tossed toward him. While he sat staring in bafflement at it in his own hand, Emil smiled and said, “Michele, will you do me the honor of accompanying me back to my homeland, to live with me there for as long as you wish it?”

Michele was so filled with relief that he did not know what to say. He looked over at Sara and saw that there were tears gathering in her eyes, but they were tears of joy. It was then that he realized this was the decision she had been hoping Emil would make, too. But the other matter still remained to be addressed.

“It is fortunate indeed,” the lord said as he rose from his seat, “that my decision is what it is. I name my daughter Sara to be my heir and the lady of this castle after me. In these past few years, she has proven herself to be a most capable stateswoman and I have no doubt this country shall prosper in her hands.”

There was much rejoicing and embracing all around, and cheers from the gathered crowds, but it seemed everyone had quite forgotten that Michele had not yet given his assent.

“I regret I cannot go with you,” he said to Emil while onlookers held their breaths, “if you cannot pass my final test. By now you know better than anyone how dear my sister is to me and I to her. We came into this world together, and in twenty-two years not a day has gone by when I have been more than a day's journey from her side or she from mine. And so I must tell you, Emil, that the only way I can consent to leave with you is if you can somehow devise a way to let me look upon Sara's face and hear her voice and speak with her whenever I wish it. And as we would be very far apart, she being in this kingdom and myself in your city above the clouds, I do not see how this can possibly be done.”

As he said this, Michele felt as though his heart were cracking like a shell inside him, so that it was all he could do to finish without a waver in his voice.

But even so, there remained a little bit of hope inside him, like the tiniest box that only needed the press of a button to activate its magic. When he had reached the end of his speech, Emil grinned as wide as ever, and he threw his arms around Michele in front of all his peers and subjects. “Oh, Mickey,” he said, using the nickname Sara had given him when they were children, “that I can most assuredly do! With our technology, it really is the simplest thing.”

“Then let it be as you wish,” Michele said loud enough for only Emil to hear, but none in attendance was in any doubt as to his final decision.

In the years that followed, Sara grew into a wise and just leader of her little corner of the kingdom, beloved of her subjects who never stopped singing of her great beauty, and she was never lonely nor lacking for companionship. Michele remained Emil's truest friend and beloved, and he saw such wonders above and beyond the clouds as he never could have dreamed existed.

Throughout all their adventures, Michele and Emil never forgot Sara, and she never forgot them. True to Emil's word, the twins were able to see and hear each other at the touch of a button, whenever they wished it. And each year, on the anniversary of their birth, they reunited in the flesh, either on the earth or in the sky, to celebrate their first and deepest love that not even space and time themselves could tear asunder.

 


End file.
